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Tougher Than the Rest
Tougher Than the Rest Episode Number: Season 6, Episode 11 Directed By: Billy Gierhart Air Date: March 5, 2017 Previous Episode: Wish You Were Here Next Episode Murder Most Foul "Tougher Than the Rest" is the eleventh episode of Season 6 of the American fairytale/drama series Once Upon a Time, which aired on March 5, 2017. In this episode, Emma must find a way to escape the Wish realm as she tries to convince Regina that Robin Hood is part of the universe, while David takes matters into his own hands when Gideon arrives, thus making matters disturbing for Gold and Belle. Plot 'Opening Sequence' An enchanted tree from the Wish realm is featured in the forest. 'Event Chronology' The Wish Realm events take place in a realm in which the Dark Curse never happened. The Storybrooke events take place after "Wish You Were Here". 'In the Character's Past' In Winter 1990 Minnesota, a young Emma has ran away from a group home and is living on the streets of Minneapolis. While she is tearing pages out of a fairytale book to keep her warm, a teenage boy approached her and stops Emma from tearing the pages. He then shows her a story from the book; The golden age compendenchum of Children's Fairytales, "The Ugly Duckling", to tell her that out of the bad things that she sees around her that great things will come her way. Emma agreed to return to the group home, and tells the woman who took her in that her last name was Swan. 'In the Wish Realm' After they miss the opportunity to escape back to Storybrooke, Emma and Regina are forced to hand over their items to Robin, whom Regina believes is real although Emma says otherwise. When they hear horses coming, Robin escapes but Emma and Regina are now hiding from Prince Henry, who believes Regina is still The Evil Queen. Afterwards, Emma comes across Pinocchio and after explaining that they're from another realm they come up with a plan to build a magical portal called the magical wardrobe so they can return home. Regina, on the other hand, decided to find out about the Wish Realm Robin, and tracked him down to his tavern. While there, she asked Robin if he would’ve been better off if she had never pursued him, only to have their conversation interrupted by the Sheriff of Nottingham, and are placed in jail. Regina discovers that Marian in this realm has passed away and Robin is unhappy; in this realm, Robin is a wanted thief as he keeps everything he steals instead of giving it to the poor. Suddenly the Wish realm Rumplestiltskin arrived and frees them, but instead of Rumplestiltskin returning the favor for freeing her after she did the.same for him, Regina finds herself at Rumplestiltskin's custody because in this realm she had Belle killed. Regina tells Robin that where she came from the real Robin was murdered. Robin agreed to help Regina escape and they do. Meanwhile, Emma and Pinocchio start working on the ingredients needed to create the portal, when they come across a Wish realm version of Hook, except this one is an alcoholic and wants to start fights. As Emma uses her magic to send him back to his ship, Hook accidentally breaks one of Pinocchio’s magical tools. Pinocchio gives Emma a present, which turned out to be a wooden figure of a swan, similar to the one Emma saw in the "The Ugly Duckling" in the flashback, and learned that he is the teenager who convinced her to return to the group home in the real realm. Pinocchio wanted Emma to know that because of him inspiring her, Emma has inspired him now to embrace the magic within. After Pinocchio finished the portal, Emma and Regina are ready, with the latter bringing Robin with her. As Robin gives Regina a feather similar to the one the real Robin was about to give her before he died, Regina believed that the real Robin's spirit still lives in this Robin. The threesome enter the portal and returned to Storybrooke. 'Storybrooke' At the pawn shop, Gideon explains to Belle and Gold about how he was raised by The Black Fairy, but he resisted turning dark on his own will, although he still plans to kill Emma because her powers as a savior are the only way to kill his grandmother and he needs the resources. Hours later in the woods, Gold meets with Gideon to offer his help, but Gideon refuses upon being provoked by Gold to attack him. At the loft, David, who by now is frustrated and even has Hook worried while looking for their unwanted visitor earlier, explained to Snow (via cellphone as she is still under the shared sleeping curse) that until the threat is over he won't wake her up. Belle shows up at the loft to tell David about Gideon being the one who'll kill Emma, and is hoping they can come up with a plan to stop it As Emma returned to Storybrooke, the vision is about to be played out, and as expected is suddenly approached by Gideon; the two start their sword fight as Emma’s family and friends arrived to stop them, but Gideon freezes them so they can duel. Emma gains the upper hand when her supposedly shaking hand causes a burst and sends Gideon flying to the ground, then she places the sword at his throat, only to have Gideon (at the request of Belle and Gold to stop Emma from killing him) end the battle by disappearing until they meet again. Hours later, Emma meets up with August to ask him about their past encounter in Minnesota and discovers that he was keeping tabs on her to keep her safe; both work on a plan that could change Emma's destiny with August adding a new chapter to the storybook. Meanwhile, Gold tells Belle that Gideon isn't after Emma nor trying to kill her, and the two agree to help their son, who, in the wake of his defeated battle with Emma, takes his frustrations out by destroying the face of the clock tower. Cast Starring *Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard *Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan *Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen/Regina Mills *Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David Nolan/Prince James *Emilie de Ravin as Belle *Colin O'Donoghue as Hook *Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills *Rebecca Mader as The Wicked Witch/Zelena *Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold Guest Starring *Giles Matthey as Gideon *Sean Maguire as Robin Hood *Eion Bailey as Pinocchio/August Booth *Wil Traval as Sheriff of Nottingham *McKenna Grace as Young Emma Swan *Rustin Gresiuk as Young August Booth Trivia Production Notes= *The title card features the Enchanted Tree. *This episode has the lowest ratings of the entire series. *The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on October 21, 2016. *Adam Horowitz is a fan of the singer Bruce Springsteen. This episode shares its name with a song from the rock star's 1987 album Tunnel of Love. *This episode reveals that young Emma adopted the last name "Swan" after reading the story of "The Ugly Duckling". *Jennifer Morrison has previously stated that Emma got her last name from her first foster parents, but this is proven apocryphal in this episode. *In the episode script, after Robin asks Regina to hand over her necklace, Emma says, "Give it to him. He doesn't know you." This line is not in the final episode. *The tavern where Regina finds Robin is the Wish Realm version of the Enchanted Forest tavern where Queen Regina and Tinkerbell found the real Robin Hood in "Quite a Common Fairy". The two buildings share the same facade. *Emma comments on August's typewriter and says that she wasn't sure if the sound she heard was from a typewriter or a Tommy gun. This is one of the nicknames for the Thompson submachine gun, which is also known as the "Chicago typewriter", because the sound of a Tommy gun being fired in the distance resembles the sound of typing on a typewriter, and because the weapon was in popular use in Chicago during the 1920s. |-|Goofs= *During the scene where Sir Henry searches for his mother and The Evil Queen along the waters edge, a horse wrangler can be seen in the lower half of the screen.